I came to the same conclusion a couple of years ago. I work in some of the finer 'hoods of my town. I would watch the news at night and suddenly realized that the shootings and assults always seemed to be within a block or so of where I had been that day. I decided to care for myself with a CCW permit and lots of practice. My wife, at first, didn't agree. One day when I got home, she aske if I was carring? See had just seen the news showing where a person had been found shot to death and stuffed in a garbage can. When she heard the address, she realized it was the house next to the one I was inspecting. She was an instant convert. (I didn't have the heart to tell her that for the past 6 months almost all similar crimes occured very near where I had been working.)

Is that a Bersa in the photo? If so, where did you get the grips? Mine are Walnut from Marschal Grips (without the Bersa Logo). http://marschalgrips.com/bersa/bersa-th380-flat-sapele-checkered.jpg.

Yes, indeed that's a horrible story, one which could make anyone what to own a gun for protection. But, as people often point out about my posts, it's anecdotal. What needs to be considered is the whole picture of gun violence including suicides and accidents. The relationship between law-abiding gun owners and the criminals who seem to continually find ways to arm themsemlves needs to be considered. The growing number of uneducated (in gun management) and sloppy gun owners like those guys who point rifles at other people in the gun store, needs to be thrown into the mix.

Breda, To answer your questions, the relationship between gun owners and criminals is the one that accounts for the fact that generally criminal guns start out legally sold by a licensed dealer. Somewhere along the line they end up in the wrong hands, which means there must have been one specific transfer from a good guy to a bad guy. Also you've got the stolen guns, some of which are the result of improper precautions on the part of the lawful owner.

That's the relationship.

Suicide and accident stats are available from many reputable sources. I say a self-inflicted bullet to the brain counts on the scorecard of gun violence.

My expression "the uneducated in gun management" refers to those people who buy guns and don't even know the 4 Rules of gun safety. I admit I did make that up, but I thought it would be easily understood. These guys, according to a discussion on Tam's blog recently, or maybe it was Roberta's, are quite commonplace in the gun shop.

One other thing which I didn't mention in the comment is the question of DGUs vs. gun violence. I find this a very fascinating discussion and one at the very heart of determining whether guns do more good than harm.

I can tell you honestly I'm not spoiling for a fight or trolling or playing games.

Mike - there is no such thing as a "criminal gun." Only a person can be a criminal, not an object. In the same vein, criminals are always the cause of stolen guns. Blaming anyone for the theft of their own personal property is like blaming a woman for her own sexual assault.

Debating someone who, like you, cannot or will not understand these simple points, is very much a waste of my time. This is the last response you'll ever get from me.

In response to Breda's comment, I'd like to point out that everyone, even someone like me knows there's no such thing as a "criminal gun." The pro-gun insistence on picking up on this theme of the inanimate object at every opportunity is an attemp to paint the gun control person as someone so silly that they attribute powers to inanimate objects.

My use of the two-word phrase, "criminal guns" was used in an attempt to communicate a much more important point about gun flow from the legitimate world of gun owners to the criminal world of gun owners.

I don't think anyone who read my comment thinks I really meant a gun can be criminal. It was clear from the context of the sentence that I meant a "gun in the hands of a criminal person."

The other business about stolen guns being only the responsibility of a thief and never that of the victim/owner, I don't believe. There are some cases where insufficient care is taken by the owner to prevent theft.